Tackling the Food Crisis: How Arvest Bank’s Million Meals Campaign Makes A Difference

Over 44 million people in the U.S. face hunger every day. 13 million of them are children, and childhood hunger can have longterm effects like poor academic performance, health problems, and developmental differences. 

In 2022 alone, 49 million people in the U.S. turned to food assistance programs for extra help. That’s 1 in 6 people in the country! Food banks, pantries, and nonprofits that feed the hungry are vital for these people’s health, and the more support these organizations get, the bigger impact they can have. But many of these organizations find that they don’t have enough resources to assist everyone in their communities who need help.

Clearly, food insecurity is a serious problem. And like many other local issues, it’s one that financial institutions around the country are determined to solve. 

The banking industry is “the lifeblood of a community,” and your financial institution is uniquely positioned to fight food insecurity and make a difference. With financial education opportunities, nonprofit partnerships, community events, donations/sponsorships, and more, banks and credit unions take this problem seriously and are doing what they can to make a difference. 

One institution making a big impact and doing its best to fight food insecurity across its entire footprint is Arvest Bank.

How Arvest Bank helps the hungry

With more than $26 billion in assets, Arvest Bank has branches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. Founded in 1961, the bank has long been dedicated to focusing on the customer. That philosophy remains true to this day, as the bank's mission is "People helping people find financial solutions for life." Among many other programs and events dedicated to fulfilling this mission, Arvest Bank runs an annual Million Meals campaign to provide food to the hungry. 

This bank-wide campaign runs for two months each year, raising money that is donated directly to the bank’s community partners to help provide meals to those who need them most. In 2024 alone, the Million Meals campaign brought in 2,652,717 meals! 

So how does Arvest Bank do it? The campaign has lots of moving pieces, and keeping track of everything is no breeze. 

For Arvest Bank, the food insecurity crisis hits close to home. 3 of Arvest’s 4 state footprints (Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma) are among the top 10 states facing food insecurity in the nation. 

Arvest Bank's Million Meals campaign began in 2011 to raise awareness about food insecurity in the bank's footprint and to help food pantries stock their shelves during the busier summer months when children were not in school to receive school lunches. The campaign was originally called “One Million Meals'' to reflect the bank’s goal of collecting one million meals for the community. 

That first year, Arvest Bank and its supporters provided over one million meals, and that number has only gone up in the 14 years since the initiative began. Now, the initiative is known as the “Arvest Million Meals” campaign, and the bank’s Corporate Marketing team works directly with local bank markets to help run it. Maggie Theodoro from that team said, “The transformation of our Million Meals campaign has been propelled by the collective enthusiasm of Arvest Bank associates, employees, and community members. Everyone loves this program, and that has served to help us grow and expand the meals we’re able to provide.”

Arvest Bank refers to everyone involved in the campaign as "hunger heroes." This is a fitting name for a noble cause like fighting food insecurity. These “hunger heroes” are central to the success of the Million Meals campaign, and they help by raising funds, hosting events, organizing contests, and more. “Our hunger heroes’ unwavering commitment to the Million Meals campaign is indispensable to its success,” Maggie said. “It takes a collective effort to combat hunger within our communities, and Arvest Bank associates are up for the challenge.”

Maggie and her team also like to get the whole community involved in this initiative. Through local media partnerships, fundraising events, the Arvest GO mobile app, social media, and more, Arvest raises awareness for this campaign, collects donations, and shares results. Without the continued support of community members and organizations, the Million Meals campaign wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is. 

And the results speak for themselves. In 2024, Arvest Bank brought in 2,652,717 meals throughout the months of April and May. These meals were then distributed to 85 different nonprofits and food banks across their footprint. “Many of our food partners, particularly smaller pantries in rural areas, rely on these donations to sustain their operations and serve those in need,” Maggie said. 

These are pretty impressive numbers, and Arvest Bank is clearly making a big impact in its communities. But this is only one side of the story. How does Arvest Bank plan these events? How do they track donations and volunteer hours? How can they see the actual impact they’re having and report that impact to board members, stakeholders, and the community? The answer is Kadince.

How Arvest Bank uses Kadince to run the Million Meals campaign

Having a big impact is hard enough. Tracking the data, managing volunteer hours/events, and reporting your impact is even harder. 

Like most financial institutions, Arvest Bank once struggled to track its community involvement data. Mostly using spreadsheets to manage the Million Meals campaign just wasn’t cutting it. In 2023, Arvest Bank began using Kadince software to track its events, volunteer hours, donations, loans, and investments. 

According to Maggie, “Kadince has played a pivotal role in enhancing employee/community engagement with the Million Meals campaign this year.” 

When it comes to the Million Meals campaign, Arvest Bank’s Kadince usage starts even before the campaign itself. “As the Million Meals campaign has gone on,” Maggie said, “more and more community organizations and nonprofits have wanted to be involved. We used the Kadince donation request form for the Million Meals campaign so that nonprofits wanting to receive donations can go in and request a donation. They fill out the form and provide their information, and then we go in and evaluate the request. If it is approved, we add them to our list of organizations that will receive meal donations at the end of the campaign. This has helped us find more organizations to partner with while not requiring a ton more time on our end to seek them out.” 

Not only does Arvest Bank track donation requests in Kadince, but they also use it to track total donations given to organizations. The Million Meals campaign is powered by monetary donations from community organizations, community members, associates, and the bank itself. At the end of the campaign, final donation totals are entered into Kadince to track how much was donated on behalf of Arvest. 

List of Arvest Bank’s Million Meals events tracked inside Kadince software

Arvest also uses Kadince to manage all company/community events, including the fundraising events held throughout April and May for the Million Meals campaign. These events are crucial for spreading the word, drawing attention to the food crisis, and collecting donations. Tracking these events in Kadince makes it easy for employees to see volunteer shifts, sign up, and submit their hours. “The easier it is to manage these events,” Maggie said, “the bigger the impact we can have and the more people our campaign can reach.” 

Each year, the Million Meals campaign ends at the beginning of June. Then it’s up to the Arvest team to analyze the results, report progress to the board, and distribute meals to their partner organizations. 

Since 2011, the Million Meals campaign has provided over 25 million meals to local community food partners (including $4.5 million in direct funds). That’s amazing! There may be 44 million people facing hunger in the U.S. every day, but Arvest Bank is determined to help. And they’re off to a pretty great start! 

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Tired of manually tracking donations, volunteer hours, events, and more? According to one user, “Kadince has been a game-changer for our organization. Before Kadince, managing the review and approval of donations and volunteer activities had become almost impossible. We spent hours on manual tasks, and I had so many spreadsheets I didn’t know what to do! Now that we have Kadince, we can use that time to work on creating greater impacts for the communities we serve.” 

Sound like a dream come true? Schedule a 30-minute demo to learn how Kadince can help you do the same.

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